


Angel

by robertstanion



Series: Black Friday Fics [10]
Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid, The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Autistic!John McNamara, F/M, M/M, Songfic, autistic!Paul Matthews, its all fluff until the last moment, worried!Xander Lee
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:06:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24527347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robertstanion/pseuds/robertstanion
Summary: "Wake The Warrior, Kill The Prophet, Save The World"Up until now, Ethan Green, Paul Matthews and Xander Lee were normal people. Ethan was a high school dropout struggling with wages and the ability to bag a job, Paul Matthews worked in an office, reviewing the media alongside three of his closest friends, and Xander Lee was a theoretical physicist. Then Black Friday hit and they found their purpose.
Relationships: John McNamara/Xander Lee, Lex Foster/Ethan Green, Paul Matthews/Emma Perkins
Series: Black Friday Fics [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1564606
Comments: 5
Kudos: 24





	1. Only Angel

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY SO the layout goes as such:  
> Lexthan  
> Paulkins  
> McNamander
> 
> and then the final chapter IS black friday where everyone meets so fuck you

Ethan remembered when he first saw Lex. He was sitting in shop class, his friends in the smoke club teasing him at the back of the class while he actually tried to finish the project, when he saw a smiling face of a girl at the front of the classroom by Mr Houston’s desk. He caught sight of the face and became transfixed. She had dark brunette hair and hazel eyes that had a tinge of fire to them. She was…beautiful, even dressed in the dark grey hoodie, jeans and worn down sneakers. She was beautiful. That had been when they were 16. Ethan stopped moving and watched the girl, questioning a lot of things. He hadn’t seen her around here before, and if he did, he couldn’t remember if he had or not. He got nudged in the side by Deb, who smirked. “Who’ve you got your eye on, Green?” She teased and he punched her in the arm.

“Fuck off.” He muttered and returned back to his project.

“No fuckin’ way! Has Green gone soft for _Lex Foster?!”_ Danny asked, sitting upright on the stool. Ethan did a double take when he heard her name. _That_ was Lex Foster? He knew Lex very well, or he did. They’d grown up together, when Ethan’s family owned a caravan and they lived there. Him and Lex used to play in the fields together. That all changed when Lex’s father mysteriously vanished. She wasn’t allowed out as much, and then she announced, when her baby sister, Hannah, was born, she couldn’t see him at all. It was around the same time his father got a job at the garage, meaning they could get a small house. He didn’t see Lex again after that. She didn’t go to the same school as him, up until now.

He’d been so worried about her, but as the years grew on, and he became addicted to cigarettes, he realised she became easier to forget about. That was until now. The sunlight shone down on her, highlighting her features. He couldn’t tell if she was wearing makeup or not, but she appeared to have a natural glow to her face. Her hair was shining and so was she. She was smiling while talking to Mr Houston, who was smiling back. “I haven’t gone soft for…when did she get here?” Ethan asked and looked to his friends. They shrugged, except for Sof.

“She got here a few weeks ago. She started in this class and she knows Houston personally or some shit.” She shrugged. “You said you’d forgotten about her!”

“I didn’t know that was her!” He argued and huffed until Danny creeped up on him.

“It was an angel, you saw, Ethan. You think of her as some ethereal being because she was your childhood sweetheart and you never fully got over her, and even as a kid you fell for her and _she’s_ your Juliet to your Romeo-“ it was then Lex turned around and looked at the group. Ethan tore his eyes away in an attempt to disguise himself, but Danny smiled. “Hi Lex!”

“Hi Danny!” She called back before she turned back to Tom. Ethan looked back up then, heart going quicker than usually.

“I guess…I really _did_ see an angel…”

“Well, let me let you into a little secret.” Danny said, moving Ethan’s project away from him. “She’s coming to the party I’m hosting tonight. And you’d better be there.”

“I can’t, Danny, my parents are h-“

“They’re out of town.” He said and shook Ethan’s shoulders. “Come on! Open up your eyes to endless opportunities with her, Ethan!”

“Shut your mouth.” Ethan huffed as the bell rang. He cleared up quickly and grabbed his bag. “And I’ll see.” He said and walked out of the classroom.

* * *

That same night, Ethan attended Danny’s lame party which most certainly was _not_ lame at all. He found his group of friends, who smiled wide at him. He was dressed in the same outfit as he went to school in, but then again, so was everybody else. Deb pulled Ethan down, her other arm wrapped around a girl in a pink cardigan, who had introduced herself as Alice. “Ally, this is Ethan. He’s the one who’s trying to convincing himself that he’s still the only one to remain in love with himself, but we all know he has a crush on Lex Foster.” Alice looked up and smiled.

“Isn’t Lex Foster trouble?”

“So are we, babe.” Deb said and kissed her cheek, causing Alice to giggle.

“That’s a lie.”

“Anyways!” Ethan announced and hopped up on to the table. “Where are the drugs?”

“We’re gonna light the blunts when the party clears up a little bit so they don’t run out.” Danny explained. “But you can get wasted all night.”

“Fan-fucking-tastic.” Ethan grinned sarcastically as he took the red cup Sof was holding out to him, drinking the contents. When he looked back up, he saw two other people, both of who he recognised. The first was wearing suspenders and glasses, and also had Danny’s arm wrapped around him. The second…was Lex. Ethan chose to ignore his old childhood friend and pointed directly at the younger teen. “Oliver Green, what’s going on here.”

“Oh hush, Ethan!” Oliver said, looking to Ethan. “And besides, Uncle Hidgens knows already.”

“Do you have to drag him into _everything_ you say?!” Ethan asked, a confused smile appearing. Oliver nodded.

“I’m only late because Danny wanted me to go and find Lex.”

“Fuck off, Oliver. I was two streets away.” Lex rolled her eyes, and Ethan moved his eyes away again.

“You were lost, admit it!”

“I wasn’t!” She said and looked to the other side of the group, looking at Ethan. She took a breath and turned to Danny. “Where’s the alcohol?”

It wasn’t long before Lex was drunk. Ethan was getting there, on the border of being drunk off his ass and tipsy. He didn’t remember how, but he ended up kissing a girl only to be pulled away and upstairs. The person shut the door and Ethan let his vision clear to see Lex standing there. “I wanna talk to you.” Lex said, but Ethan shook his head.

“Nope! I was in the _middle_ of something.” He said and went to turn around to open the door, but Lex grabbed his face before he had chance and pulled him into a kiss, and she didn’t hold back. What scared Ethan the most was how he didn’t either. He was getting stuck with her and he couldn’t do anything about it, not like he was complaining about it. He couldn’t stop thinking about what Danny had said, “ _she’s an angel,”_ and Ethan could only agree. Only an angel, but she is an angel, and that’s what he loved.

When they awoke the next morning, it was awkward at first, but Lex shuffled a piece of paper on to the drawers beside him with her number written on. And with that, his angel was gone.

* * *

They remained in contact over the course of the next few years, and soon, it was 2018, he was 19, and she was 18. Hannah was 9 years old, and currently sat beside them. A relationship hadn’t ended up between them, and they weren’t friends with benefits either. They were much closer than that, but they didn’t have a label. Ethan lifted Hannah on to his lap and bounced her up and down as he looked at Lex. “I must admit, that, at Danny’s party those years ago-“

“You’re acting it seem like we met up again in the middle of the renaissance period. It wasn’t that long ago.”

“It seems to be long ago.” Ethan said and rolled his eyes before he continued. “I must admit, that at Danny’s party those years ago, I thought I’d like to make you mine…properly, having to dodge the warning signs between us like we were treading on thin ice. And it wasn’t like whenever you came round to mine, one of us got pinned against the wall in the hallway every single time, and going back, I realise that there’s nothing we could do about it.”

“Ethan, you know how I feel about relationships…”

“Yes, I know you’re cautious, and I know you’re uneasy, but I will never treat you badly. Sof keeps talking to Danny, and Danny keeps talking to Alice, and Alice keeps talking to Deb, and _Deb_ told me that you’re gonna be the angel.”

“The angel? What the fuck? Is that some kind of code name?” Lex asked, a smile appearing fixed on her face.

“Well, yeah. We made bets when we first started high school of how to refer to each other’s crushes or significant others without getting caught. You were Angel.”

“What was Danny?”

“Oh! Danny was Devil, which my cousin likes to remind me of when he says ‘devil between the sheets’ which is just gross, but there’s nothing we can do about it. But Danny makes that dweeb happy and you make me happy….”

“And you’re being serious? You actually want to date me?”

Ethan nodded and looked at her. “But only if you’re comfortable-“ He was cut off with a kiss from Lex, Hannah unaware of what was going on. When they pulled away, they were both smiling.

“I’ll be your angel.”

  
  
  



	2. Hey Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paulkins chapter babey, slight bit of backstory, but mostly focusing on a rewritten version of emma's monologue!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Paul Matthews is a SIMP

They’d originally met in high school, when Sycamore transferred the entire year group over to Hatchetfield High to watch their production of _Brigadoon._ The feelings had started when he saw her step foot on stage. They didn’t meet again until late 2017, just after Christmas, when Paul Matthews walked into the coffee store called _Beanies_ when Starbucks had been shut. He was immediately met with warmth. It was nearing New Years Eve, so people were buzzing with ideas about parties. Paul wasn’t attending his work party this year. He didn’t like parties in general. They usually sent him into sensory overload. Even the mention of the parties had gotten his nerves up.

When it was finally his time to approach the counter, he noticed a smaller barista, one he didn’t recognise when he passed by. He usually drove to CCRP, and there were traffic lights outside the store. Paul usually got stopped at those traffic lights, and he often peered inside but never _went_ inside. He saw the same two baristas, occasionally a third. The two he was familiar with were pale. One had short reddish-brown hair and wide eyes, her eyebrows constantly arched, a firm frown fixed on her face. The other wore their dark hair down accompanied by a full face of makeup which either included red or dark lipstick. They always wore the compulsory uniform. The younger of the two, dark lipstick girl as Paul referred to, was usually seen with a cop with golden hair decked in leather. The third he saw occasionally was tall, also pale, and they had curly black hair and an ear piercing on their right ear. Paul thought they looked incredibly friendly.

But this barista was different. She wasn’t wearing the cap, and her green apron hardly fit her. She was tanned and, though she wore makeup, it was minimal, such as mascara, eyeshadow and highlighter, just enough to make it look like she put in an effort, but not enough to make her seem like she tried hard. She wore her brown hair up in a bun on her head, and she had dark, sad eyes with circles beneath them. He pitied the girl and wondered why he’d never seen her before.

She was leaning against the counter, lost in the noise in the small store before she looked up at him. She smiled politely, but it was obvious she was tired. She stood up straight, revealing she was a significant amount smaller than he was. “Hi, can I help you?” She asked. Her voice was soft, sweet, yet he could tell it was probably to mask something worse.

Paul had his order memorised. Just regular tea with semi-skimmed milk poured until the drink was the colour of the rivers in Michigan with two teaspoons of sugar, medium amounts on both. That was perfect. It’s what he got every time, and everyone in Starbucks knew, but the tiredness in her voice made him panic. His brain became static as he tried to speak. She…was something else, a rose between thorns, her beauty glowing in the darkness that was the shit-show of Hatchetfield, Michigan, America. He realised he was stalling when she asked again, her voice more frustrated. He snapped out of his trance and began to stutter. “Y-Yeah, uh, just a black coffee!” He said. Paul didn’t even _like_ coffee, but it was the easiest order he could think of. Maybe it would make her day less shitty. She faked a smile again and got to making the order. He tried to look at her name tag, but was unsuccessful. She punched his total into the cash register and sighed. “$1.50.” She said, and he coughed up another five to tip her. Before she could realise what he’d done, he’d grabbed his coffee and left.

* * *

He must have enjoyed the coffee enough because he went back every day for months. His coworkers began to catch on. It was Bill first, then Ted, and then Charlotte. They went down in groups a lot to get what Ted named ‘the worst coffee in the world, let alone America,’ and Paul was apparently oblivious to Emma’s flirting. He couldn’t tell. He just thought she was smiling a lot more around him, and that she had a much brighter look in her eyes.

He went in alone one day when Emma groaned mid way through making his coffee. “Paul, what the _fuck!”_ She exclaimed, turning around to look at him. He fidgeted nervously.

“I, uh, I haven’t said anything…”

“That’s the problem!” She said and threw the cloth down on the counter. “For _months_ I’ve been flirting with you! Months! Why haven’t you caught on?!”

“So Ted was right?!” He asked, blinking before he realised what he was supposed to say. “Oh shoot I mean-“

“I’m asking you on a date, dumbass. The Cineplex, tonight, I’ll pay.” She smiled again as she put a lid on his coffee and wrote something on the cup. “It’s on the house.” She blew him a kiss before she called for the next person. Paul was in shock for a little while before he shook himself out of it and left the store.

* * *

The date must have gone well, because they went on many more. Emma was nervous about putting a label on them. He pretended he wasn’t, but he was, yet they called themselves boyfriend and girlfriend and moved on. It was the middle of summer, August to be specific, when they were lying on a blanket in Paul’s backyard staring up at the stars. She was in one of his hoodies and he was in his pyjamas. He felt Emma take his hand and take a breath.

“Paul, do you want to know the real reason I moved back to Hatchetfield?” She asked, turning her head to look at him. He turned his and squeezed her hand.

“Only if you’re ready to open up.” He said softly, and she spoke up shortly after he finished speaking.

“It was because my sister died a couple weeks before Christmas.” She admitted. “We were never close, seeing as she was the perfect daughter, and I was the fuck up. My parents adored her, they pretended I didn’t exist a lot. When we had visitors over, I was locked in my room. They didn’t want them to see _me,_ a scruffy, undergrown kid. I mean, I’d have grown more if they’d have fed me more but-“ She cut herself off. “That’s a story for another time. But as soon as I was out of high school, I left Hatchetfield and went to Guatamala. Of course, I got the invitations to her stupid parties…weddings, birthdays, baby showers, the lot. I always said I’d catch the next one. When the invite to her _funeral_ turned up, I came home for it. I signed up for community college and a job at Beanies. I needed the money. I met my brother-in-law and nephew for the first time at that funeral. I could have easily turned and left…but you kept me here.” She said. Paul squeezed her hand again and sighed softly.

“What was your sister’s name?”

“It was Jane…”

Paul nodded and looked to her. “Hey, angel, “ he said, using the pet name he’d given her. “Do you know the reason why we look up to the sky and look at the stars?”

“No.”

“Well, it’s because we’re remembering Jane and all she did for you.”

“She did shit for me.”

“Is that true, or are you just jealous?” When she didn’t reply, he continued. “And when you look at the dorky photos we take together, do you look at us and laugh, and even in times like this, when we hold on to the past, you smile. You’re free from your family. You’re your own person, Emma. You’re okay.” He said and kissed her cheek. She sat up and looked down at him.

“I wish I could be more like you.” She admitted.

“You wish you could be more like me?” He asked, sitting up as well. She nodded.

“Mhmm. You’re so strong, you hardly let anything get to you. You push through things I’d never be able to.”

Paul laughed then. “Oh, goodness, Emma. Trust me, the worst thing I ever had to go through was telling my friends in high school I had autism. You’ve lost your sister, your parents, you moved away at a young age to an unfamiliar area, potential child abuse?”

“Well-“

“I won’t bring it up again until you’re ready to talk about it. But now you have me and Hidgens. That’s all you need.” He smiled softly and kissed her cheek again. “Now, it’s getting cold. So do you wanna go to bed?” He watched her nod and put on that nervous smile.

“That sounds great.”

* * *

The summer soon ended and they were thrown into the wild land of Black Friday advertisements before long. Emma was getting stressed with the anniversary of Jane’s passing approaching too and she had to figure out what to get Tim for Christmas. She was stressed with finals, and it was a mess. She was around at Paul’s leaning against his shoulder, when she spoke up in the middle of the film they were watching. “Hey, Paul?” She asked, tiredly. He hummed and looked to her. “Do you ever try and figure out how to get to the other side? Of the universe, I mean. To see the souls of the dead.”

“Emma, that’s pretty dark.” Paul chuckled nervously, but she continued.

“No because, what’s the point of crying every night for months when we waste our lives away?” She asked. “Jane did something _useful_ with her life…I wish I could have said goodbye.” It was followed by a short huff before she spoke again, shaking her head. “I see her everywhere I go, Jane, that is. At the bar, at the edge of my bed, the backseat of my car, and I hear her voice in the back of my head. I wish it was the real thing.” She bit her lip and Paul turned to her.

“Trust me, Emma, it’s a sign she’s watching over you. And Black Friday’s fast approaching, toys are being advertised on the radio a lot more now. There’s that Tickle Me Wiggly? Maybe you could get that for Tim?”

“Fuck thinking of Christmas for now. I fucking hate that holiday.”

Paul laughed lightly and kissed her hair. “Just keep a list of ideas, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”


	3. New Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John McNamara and Xander Lee have a fluff session in Xander's office where John becomes the meme of that very stressed guy and him being like "i've connected the dots"  
> "you didn't connect shit"  
> "i've connected them."  
> you know them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> John's actions are very much coming from my PEIPHQ series which you can find with a simple two clicks on my profile. Anyways, Xander calls him buggy and it'll be revealed why in a oneshot

“McNamara!” Someone shouted from down the corridor and the physicist hit his head against the wall.

“For the ever loving _fuck_ of a last time, it’s Lee! I may be married to the dumbass who owns the surname, it doesn’t mean I took it!” He sighed and took his head off the wall, only to be spun around and pulled into a kiss. Xander couldn’t help but smile as he kissed back and he pulled away.

“I’ll remind you we conjoined our surnames.” John said and gripped Xander’s hand, causing him to yelp slightly.

“You have my hand _awfully_ tight, my dear, is everything alright?”

“No. Nothing is alright. I’ve got a headache which is a lot worse than usual.” He said and leaned against Xander’s chest.

“Hey, buggy.” Xander said, holding the back of his head, running his hands through John’s hair. “It’s getting closer to Black Friday, isn’t it? It’s more or less the connection to The Black and White getting stronger.”

“But I am not coping with this constant pain in my head!” He grunted and slouched into Xander’s chair. “Can you tie my hair up?” He asked and spun around.

“I was going to do that anyway.” He said and pressed a kiss to John’s hair as he began to gently brush the knots and tangles out with his fingers. John folded his arms and relaxed into Xander’s touch. He was exceptionally restless.

“Xander, there are too many hours in the night.”

“There are 24 hours in a day, there are 8760 in a year.” Xander smiled softly as he continued to run his hands through John’s golden hair.

“But when you’re awake, trying to figure out the other two who are connected to The Black and White, like us, every second becomes about _them_ , and every thought is wrapped around them, trying to figure out their identities.” John sighed. “There are too many feelings in the light, and there will be even more of them in the dark, and I just need a new distraction.” He slouched down further in the chair, and Xander sat him back up. “I’m tired.”

“You will be, buggy, if you stayed up all night thinking about the other two out of the four of us with a connection to The Black and White.”

“There’s five of us, Xander. Me, you, Hannah Foster, and two others I can’t quite depict.”

“Well, you’re tired because you didn’t sleep again last night.”

“Well, at least you actually to see what’s left of me when I wake up.” He said and shuddered when Xander began to comb his hair up into a ponytail. “Holy shit, your touch is heavenly.”

Xander laughed and kissed his hair. “Hush.” He said. “You need to go to sleep when you’re off shift. It’s best for you.”

“I don’t know what’s best for me, that’s the problem, and you try and tell me but I don’t listen.” John said and smirked in the chair before he sighed, closing his eyes before they shot back open and he sat bolt upright.

“Be careful!” Xander shook his head as he took to combing John’s hair back up.

“No, no! I figured it out there’s- there’s the warrior of light and the angel heaven sent, we know that, two guardian angels. Wake the warrior, kill the prophet, save the world! That’s what we keep getting told!”

“So, what revolution have you supposedly come up with this time, John? Where’s your evidence?” Xander asked as he watched his husband fidget slightly beneath him.

“Maybe it’s time we need a new angel!” He said. “The prophecy will only work if there is six of us. Three couples. And within those couples, we split into three again. A third of us will wake the warrior, a third of us will kill the prophet and the other third will save the world.” He said as he felt the elastic around his hair. “Xander, too tight.”

“Sorry, honey.” Xander said and loosened his grip. “So what you’ve just said….”

“We need a new angel. I’m going to be one half of the group who save the world, I’m going to need a mentee to save me from myself. We need a new angel, a branch that connects to The Black And White which is a sensation I’ve never felt. And it’s every time now, each time I close my eyes, I see them running wild, I’m hoping we can get them out of my mind and they can become our angels.”

“And you don’t have names for the remaining four, no?” Xander asked his husband, who shook his head firmly.

“Well, I think I’ve seen them in my dreams and I couldn’t figure out what I’d been missing until the name Hannah Foster flashed in my mind and I began to see them more, like a vision. The Black and White keeps giving me something out of reach.” He said as he pulled on the strap of his watch.

“Stay still, bug. You’re moving me when you move.”

“Sorry, Xan.” John sighed and remained as still as possible until he felt Xander’s hands leave the grip of his hair. Only then did he shoot back up. He grabbed some paper and set it out on Xander’s desk, writing three columns. “Angel 1, Angel 2, Angel 3. We, as far as we know, are Angel 3, which would assign to _Save The World._ Following the strategy and the information I’ve been given, at least one of us is brunette.”

“I have black hair, John.” Xander said, sitting back down, but watching his husband’s mind run wild.

“Yes, yes, you proved me wrong, you’re smarter than I am, whatever. Right…so one pair is very young, one of them is troubled, and the others are us.”

“And your point being…”

“I don’t know.” He sighed. “But I can tell that we’re all going to be intrigued by the doll in some way or another. Which means…if we find Hannah Foster, we find the other source to Angel 1. If we get to the right destination in Hatchetfield in the right time, we find Angel 2.”

“And we can do that?”

“We have two days to figure out settings and locations. We can.”   
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shes an angel uwuwu

**Author's Note:**

> yalls got three dumbass heroes who are dating three dumbass heroines, and if you don't think John wouldn't be classed as a heroine then your brain is very smooth anyways KUDOS are appreciated but don't comment constructive criticism I doubt myself and have to hide in a hole when that happens thank U


End file.
